Saturday, September 13, 2014

My letter to the NYTimes RE Learning How to Exert Self-Control

"Learning How to Exert Self-Control " by
Pamela Druckerman made my day
today. It is a fascinating scientific study/inspiring
mini-biography/pertinent self help book all packed up into a very
readable, thought provoking column.

I came across it after skimming through reams and reams of social
media posts and tweets and memes about the Israel-Palestine
conflict, with many online 'pro-Palestine' activists and followers
obsessed with bashing Israel or jabbing America. In a way these
rabble rousing free lance online 'experts' are very much like
marshmallows- tempting fluff with no nutritional value. Some are
very entertaining, but few are focused in on promoting actual
statehood, reasonable conversations and wise diplomacy for
Palestine in order to actually end the Israel-Palestine conflict.

" “If you change how you think about it, its impact on what you feel
and do changes,” Mr. Mischel writes. "

I think, in hopes of stopping racist hate mongers and criminals who
are creating horrific human suffering and catastrophic refugee
crises all through out the Middle East, America should have two top
foreign policy priorities: Helping stop
IS/ISIL/ISIS/Islamists/Islamic State tyrants/Da'esh (or whatever the
heck you want to call it) is crucially important, and so is helping
Israelis and Palestinians end the Israel-Palestine conflict ASAP,
once and for all, with a just and lasting peace.

One-state marshmallow fluff is a tasty temptation, but real fruit
grown on real trees is a better choice: Empowering and promoting a
fully secular two state solution based on FULL respect for
international law and basic human rights, in order to establish a
fully sovereign and free Palestine to live in peace and security
alongside an already sovereign and free Israel is the most
compassionate and reasonable way forward for everyone's sake.

To honor a tragic
history, we must work for peace : "The
only way to honor our tragic histories is to
create a future for our children free of
man-made tragedy. This means making peace fully,
completely and without reservation, between
Israel and Palestine." Ziad
Asali

Where
is the Palestinian Gandhi?Zogby:
What we found was that
there has been a continued erosion in the favorable ratings
Americans have of both Arabs and Muslims, posing a threat to
the civil rights and political inclusion of both Arab
Americans and American Muslims.

Emanating from the conviction of the Arab countries that a
military solution to the conflict will not achieve peace or
provide security for the parties, the council:

1. Requests Israel to
reconsider its policies and declare that a just peace is its
strategic option as well.

2. Further calls upon Israel
to affirm:

I- Full Israeli
withdrawal from all the territories occupied since 1967,
including the Syrian Golan Heights, to the June 4, 1967 lines as
well as the remaining occupied Lebanese territories in the south
of Lebanon.

II- Achievement of a
just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem to be agreed
upon in accordance with U.N. General Assembly Resolution 194.

III- The acceptance of the establishment of a
sovereign independent Palestinian state on the Palestinian
territories occupied since June 4, 1967 in the West Bank and
Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

3. Consequently, the Arab countries affirm the following:

I- Consider the
Arab-Israeli conflict ended, and enter into a peace agreement
with Israel, and provide security for all the states of the
region.

II- Establish normal relations with Israel in the
context of this comprehensive peace.

America/Israel/Palestine
1776
America/Israel/Palestine 1948: All human beings
are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are
endowed with reason and conscience and should act
towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.